Farewell to All That

The last of Queen's Park: my new office is a couple of blocks south of Macdonald  Block. Here's the last of my illicit photos of the art on the first two floors.

I'm one week into my new job. Although it is still early days, I can offer some points in comparison. 

The Ministry of the Environment is a big ministry. The Ministry of Energy is small - about 1/10th the size of Environment.

The Ministry of the Environment protects the environment. The Ministry of Energy protects the ratepayer.

The teams I led at Environment had a lot of people over 40, sometimes almost the entire team. Youngsters were comparatively few. Succession planning was a big issue because so many people were within 5 years of retirement. 

At Energy, everyone is very young, even my fellow directors and my boss. There are not only a lot of people under 40, there are a lot of people under 30. Succession planning is still a big issue, but because young ones move around so much.

At Environment the work focused on preventing environmental damage, like climate change, or redressing legacy damage, like Grassy Narrows.

At Energy the work focusses on the power grid: generating energy, transmitting energy and conserving energy, especially through new technology. My branch's area is the agencies that manage and regulate the energy sector and programs that support innovation in the grid. 

In other words, my new job is completely different from my old. 

Body Count

One of the people on my new team who is under 30 is my administrative assistant. On my first day, she was the one who made sure, as she said, my office was "pimped out" with everything I needed: a computer, mobile and desk phone, all the accounts set up, everything. 

She is pleasant and helpful and a delight.

I was out of the office on Tuesday at a conference (in hindsight, too soon) and so it was Wednesday before I noticed she wasn't around. Word slowly sifted in that she had, on Monday night, been hit by a car and was in hospital with a concussion and broken hip bones.

Last week I put a bid in that the word "war" should not suffer the same fate (though it already has) as other words such as "icon", "avatar" and "truth" through lazy locutions like "the war on Christmas" or "the war on the car."

But, if you are a fan of these turns of phrase, you have to admit, just in terms of body count, the cars are winning.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen